1) Dust= Death
The bottom shell of a very dusty PS3.
The inside of your precious PS3 if unfortunately a dust trap. As the PS3′s fan kicks up to mitigate heat, it has the inverse effect of pulling in more dust. This build up acts like a fleece blanket around your motherboard. Heat is the ancient enemy of all electronics and the PS3 is even more susceptible due to its lead-free solder. There are a couple of ways to take care of the dust issue in your unit. I’ll list some from easiest to most involved.
- Blow out the dust with canned air through the air intakes. The up side to this method is that you do not have to void your warranty in order to get at some of the dust. However, and thats a big however, this does not remove a majority of the dust.
- Open your unit up and vacuum out the shell. Opening up your baby get a little trickier, be sure to not disturb the thermal paste by removing the heat sink.
- Full system cleaning and Heat sink treatment. Inorder to do this you will need a couple things. Mainly, anti-static material to keep the motherboard from being shocked and new thermal paste to put on the PS3′s heatsink.
2) 19 Blade Fan
The first round of CECHA01 PS3′s came with the superior 19 Blade fan, however to cut production costs sony switched to the 15 blade shortly after launch. This causes a couple of issues. Firstly the PS3 was originally designed to have the the 19 Blade and as you can see in the picture. Not only do they have less blades, the 15 blade fans are oriented differently. Causing eddies in the ducting inside the PS3. Secondly more blades just move more air, it’s simple mathematics 19>15.
3) Thermal Paste
The thinness of the arctic silver 5 does not allow for good contact.
Thermal Paste and it’s proper application is a point of contention in the Playstation community. One of the most commonly championed pastes, that just doesn’t cut it, is Arctic silver number 5. There is two major concerns with number AS5. First of all it’s just to thin (reference under the “cation” section) and contains sliver which is electrically conductive. The heat sink in a PS3 is not spring loaded like most PC’s, therefore inorder to maximize contact, a thicker paste is required. The heat sink type also leads itself to a slightly different application method. It involves “tinting” the heatsink and “beading” the heatplate as shown below.
The combination “tinting” and the “dotting” method insures maximum coverage.
We have done extensive testing across all the PS3′s we have repaired and have found that Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 is the best paste for the PS3. It is ceramic biased and it’s tri-layer makeup allows for the best contact. Ceramique 2′s ceramic base allows for a shorter cure time 25 hours vs 200 hours AS5 requires.
4) Thermal Pads
This Thermal pad is marked for a CECHA01
An important but often overlooked way to control heat in a PS3 is with new Thermal Pads. The factory pads are brittle and full of dust, this severely limits the thermal conductivity of the pad. The Thermal Pads we recommend have a high thermal conductivity 3 w/mk (US rating, stricter than international/chinese standards) and are fiberglassed reenforced to prevent ripping.
Excess motherboard heat is the direct cause of the YLOD and these thermal pads are instrumental in pulling heat away from the motherboard. These Pads in conjunction with the Ceramique 2 thermal paste will completely overhall the thermal conductivity of your PS3. Keeping your PS3 cool and preventing the Yellow Light of Death.
5) Fan Mods
*Warning* This is only for the more adventurous PS3 owners. The<youtube link> X-Flow fan mod as a work around the issue of the PS3 pulling in air that mingles with it’s exhaust.
As you can see the PS3 kicks exhaust out the back and then pulls in “cool” air directly above! The X-flow pulls in cool air right over the GPU+CPU without drastically effecting the ascetic of the PS3. The X-flow also does not dramatically increase the amount of dust the PS3 will pull in like som other fan mods.
Have a broken PS3? Get your playstation 3 repaired. Questions? or [email protected]
Thanks,
∞Endless Electronics
My PS3 has stopped functioning after years if playing it. I have not seen a yellow light, but the fan did kick up to abnormal speeds before shutting the PS3 off mid game. After several attempts at restarting my console I could not get past the power up stage. I am interested in the component / epic clean repair service. In your expert opinion will this repair fix the problems plaguing my PS3?
It sounds like your PS3 is overheating. We would need to diagnose your PS3 to know for sure, but I am sure that a component upgrade would help keep it cool and stop it from overheating. Eventually overheating will lead to a Yellow Light of Death. We have seen loud fans and overheating before and we can get your PS3 Repaired. If you have any more questions please let us know.
Thanks,
Endless Electronics
do you make the ps3 slims as well for the mod cooler and how much it costs?
Hello,
We do an x-flow modification for the ps3 slims. It costs $25.00. If you have any more questions please let us know.
Thanks,
Ben
I’m looking foward to do several upgrades on my PS3 once i get the money ,
Could ou let me know that if for exemple i do the xflow modification + 19 blades fan blades, is it better for cooling to place place the PS3 vertically or it does not matter
thnx
PO
Hello,
You would get the most benefit if you stood the PS3 vertically. If you place it horizontally it won’t hurt anything it is just not ideal. If you have any more questions please let us know. Thanks!
When applying the thermal paste, do you put in on both the heat sink and both the CPU ? And do you apply that amount that is shown in the diagram.
Cause I used Arctic Silver 5 and only applied a thin layer on the CPU like everyone says. And my PS3 died a few days late again.
Thanks